Chapter 01
A social worker's question
For twenty years at the hospital in Burnet, Ruth Ann Kowalski asked families the same thing: tell me about your mother. Too often, she was the only one who asked.
Our story
How we got here
The people, the place and the promise behind every day of care.
Our story
How Backbone Creek House came to be
Chapter 02
The limestone house on the creek
In 2005 she found a 1950s limestone house on Backbone Creek with a long kitchen, two porches and pecan trees older than the town's oldest residents. She saw fourteen rooms and a table big enough for everyone.
Chapter 03
The first life-story book
Our first resident was a retired schoolteacher from Kingsland. Ruth Ann wrote down her stories in a spiral notebook so the caregivers would know her. Every resident since has had one.
Chapter 04
A team that stays
Our caregivers average eleven years with us. They know the stories because they have heard them told, over and over, at the long pine table.
Chapter 05
The creek porch
In 2014 we added a second porch facing the water. It is where families sit in the afternoon, and where many of our hardest conversations have turned gentle.
- 14residents in private rooms
- 2006the year Ruth Ann opened the doors
- 11years, the average tenure of our caregivers
- 1creek, two porches and a lot of rocking chairs
Ratings & recognition · sample
- Burnet County Readers' Choice · Best Senior Care (sample)
- Marble Falls Chamber · Small Business Award (sample)
- Family survey · 99% would recommend (sample)
- Licensed assisted living · Texas HHSC
Come tell us their story.
A tour takes about an hour and ends at the kitchen table with coffee. Call or text Ruth Ann, or choose a time below.